Reactions to LaRon Landry

(By Gary Cameron - Reuters)

After the loss to the Saints, fingers were pointed primarily in two directions: at Shaun Suisham, and at LaRon Landry. Suisham is gone, having been unceremoniously left on the curb during this journey toward Disappointmentville.

"I know he'll just be upset," Coach Jim Zorn said during his weekly ESPN 980 appearance. "Yet there's an accountability there. We'll all end up being accountable for our season, no question about it."

That leaves LaRon Landry, who was the subject of much finger-pointing himself, both for giving up the two long touchdowns on double moves, and for enthusiastically celebrating many of his own efforts during the loss. Zorn, though, gave a flat "no" on Tuesday when asked whether Landry might be benched. Here are an assortment of reactions to Landry's performance.

Larry Michael, Redskins Nation: "LaRon's got a lot of talent, ok? LaRon's just got to calm down a little bit I think. I think some of his antics at times rub people the wrong way, but he's got a ton of talent and I love the way he plays the game."

Brian Mitchell, CSN's Postgame Live: "You know, I'm taken back to a few weeks ago when I heard the defense say when you hold a team to seven points, you're supposed to win. Well, today the secondary did not play very well. They gave up big plays when they had to stop the Saints. The game was lost in the play of the secondary."

Trevor Matich, CSN's Postgame Live: "And you know, I'll go even more specific, and I'll go to No. 30, LaRon Landry. In the second quarter he was burned on a double move that targeted him for a long touchdown pass. In the fourth quarter he was burned on a double move that targeted him for a long touchdown pass."

Jim Zorn, ESPN 980: "No [he won't be benched]. I think getting beat in that situation for us, I guess I would say that's a bad deal, ok, no question about it. LaRon knows it as well. But he has done, he has had a tremendous year, and unfortunately those things glare, juts like missing a filed goal. Yet I just put a lot of weight on LaRon as far as regrouping, regaining that edge. He's the one that created that sack...one of the only sacks we had of the day. It was a great blitz. He also had some breakups. He had that big pass breakup."

Landry, locker room: "I've got a 24-hour rule. Within 24 hours I start looking for something else, looking at your next opponent. You can't dwell upon this. I mean, if you live in the past, you'll stay down and frustrated the whole time. The whole season would be bad. If that's the case, you'd be down the whole time."

Joe Theismann, ESPN 980: "This football team has holes and one is at the free safety position. LaRon Landry should be nowhere other than 8 to 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Twice [Sunday] he got burned because he bit up a little bit on a pump fake. He's not a free safety. It's not a place where he's comfortable. It's not a place where he's most efficient. And I'm gonna guess that somewhere through the course of these next four football games you will not see him in a position to have people do that to him. You take away those two plays from his game yesterday and it was as fine a football game as we've seen [Landry play]."

Zorn: "Well, we might move him around, I don't think wholesale. I mean, just like we blitzed him, and just like he's playing free safety, and actually knocking balls down, actually making tackles, everybody would love that, and we get a lot of that. Nobody likes--and he doesn't either--it's really the double move that has been his nemesis. It was really the same play, he got beat on both sides, but we're gonna stick with him, no question."

Matich: "To me it's an A-minus for all the defense but LaRon Landry, who gets an F-minus for giving up those two double moves."

Michael: "[Reads a question about benching Landry.] You can watch LaRon Landry's play in the ballgame, he plays with a lot of intensity. I don't think you want to change the way he plays the game. He plays it the way it's supposed to be played. He wants to take your head off, all right, and that's what the game's all about. It's a violent game, pro football. His positioning on those double moves, however, means this is a pretty good question from David. What do you do when someone continually gets burned on the same type of play? I think he's too good to be benched, but what do you do to straighten him out?"

Matt Terl, to Michael: "I don't think the actual point of the game of football is to take someone's head off. I might be wrong about that."

Jerry Gray, Postgame Live: "You get two big plays that you're not disciplined on....You've got to be disciplined enough to not let them get over the top. They hit us on those two plays, which you shouldn't be able to do. And if you're just playing disciplined defense, you'll win this game."

Theismann: As far as LaRon goes, he is not a free safety. They moved him to free safety because he has the ability to go sideline to sideline, but if somebody makes a move, he's going to jump it. It's what he does instinctively. He is not good going backwards....I don't think Greg [Blache] is going to put him in that situation again....This is new to him. This is a new position to him. It's the same thing with all the young receivers, with Fred and Devin and Malcolm. Everybody wants instant results in this business, and it doesn't happen that way. It takes a while to build a team, to put the pieces in."

Michael: "I mean, the showboating, you're entitled to showboat if you win. I think it's kind of shallow if you showboat and the scoreboard says you didn't win."

Zorn: "I just think it's misused. I love the emotion of the game, I like our guys getting fired up. I think we need to look around and see what actually did happen. Yeah, I would rather guys just go and play, but there's very little that players can do today. We've taken away some of the celebrations in the end zone, we've taken away a lot of the choreography that players come up with, and so there's very little times when a player can really show his emotion or his excitement, and you don't want to stifle that either."

The Redskins have gotten hurt all year by either just plain playing guys out of position or being forced to do it by the poor construction of the team.

Landry is a SS not a FS.

Heyer is a RT not a LT

Randle-El is NOT a punt returner he is a punt catcher

M. Williams is a RG not a RT

Orakpo is a DE not an OLB

Sellers is a TE not a FB

The blame falls in two places - Vinny for putting too much emphasis on individual talent instead of constructing a team that fits together (i.e. three good SS and no good FS), and Zorn for trying to make everything fit his system instead of modifying the system to fit the talent he has to work with.

#30 needs to stop with his idiotic celebrations after every play. its obvious that he is not a team player when he gets up and celebrates a tackle after a 9 yard rushing gain by the other team--that is not what a team player does, that's what a selfish showboat does. this team (especially a team this bad) should have no tolerance for a player showboating like this when he gives up such big plays. Hey LaRon, act like you've been there before!

Laron Landry has been a show off & cocky
player since his High School days in Louisiana. He kicked an opposing player in the head during a game in front of a ref. Of course he got kicked out and the Principal went NUTS! The choosen one had been ejected! I loved every minute of this because we were the opposing team and we WON! lol

What I'm tired of seeing is DBs getting all excited after a big hit on a receiver that just gained 12 yards and a first down! If you let the receiver catch the ball and he gets a first down, you shouldn't be celebrating!

Conversely, for the receivers, I'm glad you got a first down, but simply getting a first down is not cause for jumping up and down and pointing forward like you just conquered Iwo Jima!

"I just think it's misused. I love the emotion of the game, I like our guys getting fired up. I think we need to look around and see what actually did happen. Yeah, I would rather guys just go and play, but there's very little that players can do today. We've taken away some of the celebrations in the end zone, we've taken away a lot of the choreography that players come up with, and so there's very little times when a player can really show his emotion or his excitement, and you don't want to stifle that either."
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This guy Zorn never fails to amaze me with his quotes.

Landry's antics are ridiculous. This is not the Redskins I grew up admiring. I'm thinking of Art Monk, Gary Clark, Ricky Sanders, John Riggins - guys that would make a great play and just pop up and get back to the huddle. Ken Houston never posed. These Redskins remind me of the Atlanta Falcons circa Deion Sanders and Andre Rison - they never shut their mouths and did their stupid dances and antics after every play - talked trash every week - and the Skins came out and crushed them in the first round of the playoffs something like 51-7. You didn't see Donnie Warren or Dave Butz or Darryl Grant or Neil Olkewicz doing these stupid dances and gyrations. Landry, to me, is the epitome of what is wrong with this team - he's undisciplined and thinks the goal of the game is to talk trash and hit somebody as hard as possible. I'd rather see him actually tackle somebody and do it before they catch a 15-yard pass. The Saints were just waiting for the right time to burn him time and time again because they knew they could. Someone needs to reign him in.

It took two people to post something this stupid. He knocked Brees 15 yards backwards. Complain about the double move or the showboating if you want but don't start making up dumb stuff.

mack1, you're an idiot. if you really really watched the play, landry threw his fuqqin shoulder at brees just like he did at jason avant in the eagles game. it sent brees backwards, yes but brees was already backpedaling to avoid the rush and stumbled into the fall. that's just simple inertia you dumb a$$. get back on your short yellow bus and don't forget to put your helmet on.

the redskins defensive coaches have a really bad habit of not playing guys where they're strongest. noone may have cared much for adam archuleta but when he played for the rams, he played strong safety and he destoyed players at the line of scrimmage. suddenly he got to the skins and they moved him to free safety and had him in coverage where he's not that great and everyone called him a bust. things didn't work out but he'd still be on the squad if we played him properly. the same is true with landry. he's a strong safety. he needs to dwell at the line of scrimmage. also, landry should've been benched after the first double move like rogers was in the denver game. jerry gray said he wanted to "protect" rogers. he needed to protect landry. sean payton planned on picking on landry and it work. they got 14 pts from it. we could've stood to have the missed fg because if landry had more discipline and played the receiver and not the brees, the final score would've been 30 redskins, 16 saints.

Theismann: As far as LaRon goes, he is not a free safety. They moved him to free safety because he has the ability to go sideline to sideline, but if somebody makes a move, he's going to jump it. It's what he does instinctively. He is not good going backwards....I don't think Greg [Blache] is going to put him in that situation again....This is new to him. This is a new position to him.

This is a new position to him? Really? He's been playing free safety since Sean Taylor's death in November 2007, and he has played pretty well at FS. This year, however, he seems to have regressed. Poor tackling, blown assignments, biting on double moves, and ridiculous show-boating to top it all off. He looks undisciplined on the field. Hard to believe that Blache would tolerate this from one of his starters.

You Know, Gregg Willimas sat STaylor down for bad play and crappy attitudes, but I don't see JZorn or GBlache doing the same for Laron Landry. That's why they all get fired at the end of the year! It's a double standard. CRogers has been put on the bench for the same exact crap that Landry is giving up. This STINKS with a double standard since CRogers is in his last year. It has the Dislexic Duo's filthy fingerprints all over this!

What's right is right and what's wrong is wrong. Landry should have been benched in that Saints game. If Rogers got benched when he got killed on a double move by Brandon Marshall, then Landry should have. He gave up 14 points by his self. We just shot ourself in the foot so many times in that game it was crazy. Jim Zorn callin those garbage running plays when we had 1st and goal on the 4 yard line. I mean no bootleg or nothing. Come on dude we playin the Saints. We gotta score. Shaun misses a chip shot field goal. Cambell throws a bad INT. Sellers fumbles the ball. I mean u can point the finger at any of those situations, but Landry gave up 14 and shaun gave up 3. Let's face it folks this team has not played great football on all 3 phases none this year. I just hope we can win out and finish strong. Since Jim Zorn has been pulled of play calling duties the skins actually look an NFL team. If we keep Zorn this offseason we have to bring back our new play caller. They say he was calling bingo games, but he should have been calling plays for the Redskins since week one.

Zorn: "I just think it's misused. I love the emotion of the game, I like our guys getting fired up. I think we need to look around and see what actually did happen. Yeah, I would rather guys just go and play, but there's very little that players can do today. We've taken away some of the celebrations in the end zone, we've taken away a lot of the choreography that players come up with, and so there's very little times when a player can really show his emotion or his excitement, and you don't want to stifle that either."
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Coach Zorn,

Please coach and discipline your players that the way they are supposed to show their emotions in football is by MAKING PLAYS - like blocking, and tackling, and running, and passing, and catching, and causing fumbles, and recovering fumbles, and making interceptions, and kicking field goals, etc.,etc.

You don't show your emotions in football through posing, and posturing, and dancing, and jiving, and preening and acting like minstrel idiots. If that's how someone wants to show their emotions, then they need to go into another line of work -like being a rap/hip hop artist - not a football player.

Zorn's defense of Landry and those types of wasteful, unproductive, self glorifying shenanigans shows me why his team is so unprepared, unmotivated and undisciplined. It looks like the tail is wagging the dog here. Landry should go back to SS immediately and we need to try Moore, Doughty or Hall at FS. If it takes a while to get the right pieces in the right places then so be it. We've got nothing to lose - it's not like we're jeopardizing our chance to make the playoffs this year.